I just started using LinuxMint 13 Cinnamon 64-Bit yesterday.A few moments ago, I was logged in and scrolling through the LinuxMint forumsand all of a sudden my screen went black for a couple of seconds and I waslogged out of Cinnamon. Without me doing anything, I was then logged intoMate, which I normally use as my DE. Has anybody else experienced this?Not a good thing to do to someone who is trying it out!

Does this mean you performed a fresh installation yesterday?If this is the case, did you install all available updates?In case the answer is "no", then please do so.When I started using Linux Mint 13 x86 / x64 Cinnamon in June, I kept on experiencing the reported problem, too. Once or twice a day.I configured my Linux Mint 13 to install all available updates, including the "dangerous" ones, i.e. new kernel, X.org and Cinnamon updates. The intervals between crashes of the GUI would grow longer and longer with almost each set of updates.By now I have not had this problem for 3 or 4 months.

In case, however, your Mint 13 is absolutely up-to-date we will need detailled information about your graphics card, because the graphics card and the installed video driver software will be the ones that cause the GUI to exit unexpectedly thus logging you off as a side effect.In this case, please, post the output of

I've been running LinuxMint 13 Mate 64-Bit for a few months.Yesterday I used Synaptic to install mint-meta-cinnamon-dvd, so I could experimentwith Cinnamon. I launched Update Manager to ensure I had the latest and greated stuff.Then the error I reported occurred.Since then, in a different posting to LinuxMint forums of mine, I learned about "backports".I then installed the backports.The Code output above, that was requested, was generated after the backports were installed.I hope I've answered your questions.

Thanks for posting the output of "inxi -Fx", which among other details about your hardware reveals the exact details about your Nvidia graphics card. This may be a good starting point, looking up other reports/articles on+ how well Nvidia Geforce 8800 GT is supported by Ubuntu/Mint+ whether some special (no-default) settings are needed

So some more research using Google will have to be done before I dare offer some hopefully helpful piece of advice.

Oh, by the way, assuming that you are already using "all the latest and greatest" is not really covered by the facts, as e.g. your kernel version reveals.This is not really your fault, rather it is the overly protective default configuration of mintUpdate which prevents you from getting and installing all that updated software which the Mint makers consider dangerous to the stability of your system.

mintUpdate distinguishes 5 categories of updates, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Category 1 is considered not to be able to endanger system stability. Category 5 is considered absolutely dangerous to system stability. By default mintUpdate will only display and offer categories 1, 2 and 3 for installation.Ubuntu (Mint is based on Ubuntu) does not use these categories, but translated to Mint, Ubuntu offers all 5 categories to its users for installation.In order to activate all 5 categories in minUpdate, launch mintUpdate and go to Edit => Preferences => tab "Levels" and activate all 5 levels. Confirm. mintUpdate will refresh the list of available updates.My recommendation is: install them all.My personal experience: Installing the "risky" updates as well did fix quite a number of problems on my systems.

Beware:No risk. No fun. There is the risk that what has solved a number of nasty little programme crashes may cause problems on your system.

About activating the installation "backports":This was exactly the right thing to do. Why would you want to miss bugfixes developed for Mint14 and transferred back to Mint 13?Personally, I will install "main packages", "upstream packages", "imported packages", "backported packages" - but NEVER "romeo packages".(mintUpdate => software sources => Linux Mint Software)

Kind regards,Karl

Old bugs good, new bugs bad! Updates are evil: might fix old bugs and introduce no new ones.

I understand what you say about updates 1,2,3,4,5. What my "latest and greatest" meantwas as far as Update Manager was concerned by default (since I'm so new to Linux thatI don't even know how to change it - and don't need to for my purposes). I'm not aheavy Linux user (I'm more a Mac guy), but whenever I do login, I always run UpdateManager just to stay current.

Also, I might note that I did use Menu->Preferences->Additional Drivers to install therecommended current version of the Nvidia driver when I first installed Mate.

Further, I've been running Mate for a few months now, and I've never had this problem.

karlchen wrote:In order to activate all 5 categories in minUpdate, launch mintUpdate and go to Edit => Preferences => tab "Levels" and activate all 5 levels. Confirm. mintUpdate will refresh the list of available updates.

don't need to for my purposes

Well, it is your decision to stay with the default values or to change them.Whether or not it makes sense to change is pretty unrelated to being a newbie or an expert.Bugs do not care whether a user is a newbie or an expert. They hit you when the conditions which trigger them match your system.If you are hit by a bug which can only be fixed by installing updates which the Mint makers consider "risky to system stability", then it will be necessary to do so, newbie or expert.Yet, at this point in time, it has not been determined whether such a bug is the root cause or not.

Also, I might note that I did use Menu->Preferences->Additional Drivers to install therecommended current version of the Nvidia driver when I first installed Mate.

Further, I've been running Mate for a few months now, and I've never had this problem.

I see. Mate is based on the old Gnome 2. The Gnome guys stopped developping Gnome 2 and replaced it by Gnome 3. The Mate makers took Gnome 2 and continued developping Gnome 2 under the new name of "Mate".Cinnamon is based on Gnome 3. Clem created a fork of Gnome 3 and called it "Cinnamon".As they use a different software bases, Cinnamon and Mate are not totally unlikely to exhibit different behaviour for technical reasons:They may both run fine on a given system.Mate may run fine, but Cinnamon may give you problems (like in your case) or vice versa.

What I realized now that you mentioned being a Mac guy is the fact that you are running Mint 13 x64 on an Apple machine.

I had been focussing too much on the Nvidia graphics card and the genuine Nvidia driver software.As a consequence I will extend my Google search correspondingly. This simply means I will try to find something useful about running Cinnamon on Apple machines, not just about the Nvidia card GT8800.

As it is relevant for the problem, can you bothered to post the output of the commands

please. This will tell us whether you are still using the original mdm and cinnamon versions that came with Mint 13 x64 in May 2012, or whether you are already running the current versions which were backported from Mint 14 to Mint 13 lately.

Kind regards,Karl--P.S.: Sorry for being overly verbose maybe and posting such a long reply.

Old bugs good, new bugs bad! Updates are evil: might fix old bugs and introduce no new ones.

Pooh. Finding something useful when searching for "Macbook Pro 3,1 Ubuntu" or "Macbook Pro 3.1 Mint" is really difficult. In particular, if you start adding terms like "Ubuntu 12.04" or "Mint 13" to the search conditions results are scarce. And if you insist on having articles about "Mint 13" on "Macbook Pro 3,1" youare likely to get back empty result lists.

So for the moment, the only thing which I can recommend, because+ it fixed the irregular spontaneous crashes of Cinnamon for me on an a Dell notebook+ it can be implemented easily and can be reverted easily in case it does not helpis activating the kernel setting acpi_osi=linux.

Kind regards,Karl

Old bugs good, new bugs bad! Updates are evil: might fix old bugs and introduce no new ones.

karlchen wrote:So for the moment, the only thing which I can recommend, because+ it fixed the irregular spontaneous crashes of Cinnamon for me on an a Dell notebook+ it can be implemented easily and can be reverted easily in case it does not helpis activating the kernel setting acpi_osi=linux.

mdm --versionMDM 1.0.8cinnamon --versionCinnamon 1.6.7

And, I'm using an Apple desktop MacPro not a Macbook Pro, for what it's worth.

You're really asking an already acknowledged newbie to make a kernel setting changewithout telling him how to do it? I might as well be asked to help at CERN to discoverthe so-called GOD particle. I'm willing to help in just about any way I can, but, please,some guidence/instructions would be appreciated.

Thanks for pointing out that it is a Mac Pro desktop. Looking for info on the wrong device type will not make the search any easier.

You're really asking an already acknowledged newbie to make a kernel setting change without telling him how to do it?

This idea would never occur to me. Both times when the relevant startup setting, which helped me and which might help you, was mentioned, acpi_osi=Linux, this setting was actually a link to a concise explanation on how to activate this setting.This link should have taken you to this article: set acpi_osi=Linux here in the Linux Mint forum.

Kind regards,Karl

Old bugs good, new bugs bad! Updates are evil: might fix old bugs and introduce no new ones.

karlchen wrote:This link should have taken you to this article: set acpi_osi=Linux here in the Linux Mint forum.

Sorry, I completely overlooked the link aspect of your post.

I wll be happy to change this setting, but first, what is this set to prior to my changing it?Is there a way for me to check it by doing something at the command line? Knowing thiswill allow me to change it back, if needed, since the problem has only happened once andwe have no proof this will keep it from reoccurring or does nothing. Also, can you tell mesomething about what this is we are tinkering with?

What the setting does is this:It instructs Linux to confirm to the Bios that its name is Linux instead of pretending to be Windows.I.e. acpi_osi=linux will make Linux tell the truth about its name to the Bios.

As the Cinnamon GUI crashed only once so far, I would do nothing at the moment, bookmark this thread and come back in case you find out that Cinnamon crashes sporadically or even regularly. It should never crash. During the past few months neither Cinnamon 1.4, nor Cinnamon 1.6.7 have crashed here.

Kind regards,Karl

Old bugs good, new bugs bad! Updates are evil: might fix old bugs and introduce no new ones.

karlchen wrote:As the Cinnamon GUI crashed only once so far, I would do nothing at the moment, bookmark this thread and come back in case you find out that Cinnamon crashes sporadically or even regularly. It should never crash.